Control device for air accumulators



F. KEMPTER. I CONTROL, maw cs FOR AIRACCUMULATORSV'. QPRLICATION{RED-0618,1920} 1 43 9 1 1 Emma Nov. 28, 1922.

INVENTOR: Y

?atented Nov. 28, 19221.

CONTROL DEVICE FOR AIR ACCUMULATORS.

Application filed October 8, 1920. 1 Serial No; 415,691.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRITZ KEMPTER, a citizen of the German Empire, residing at Stuttgart, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Control Devices for Air Accumulators, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to air accumulators and more especially to an automatic control device for the supply of the pressure means in compressed air accumulators. In accumulators of the said kind, provided with a piston separating the compressed air from the pressure liquid, it was hitherto the practice for the governing devices required for the automatic control of the supply of pressure liquid to be either actuated by a member acted on by the air pressure produced by the accumulator, such, for instance, as a contact manometer, or else by means of the piston serving to close the air space of the accumulator toward the pressure liquid, in that the motion of the said piston was transmitted from the accumulator onto the control member for the said accumulator by means of suitable connecting rods.

In the first case, that is to say when the atmospheric pressure is made use of for the purpose of acting on the control gear, there arises the drawback that along with the loss of compressed air, which is unavoidable while the device is in operation, the tension of the compressed air will suffer a change, so that the alternate uppermost and lowermost positions of the separating piston, not visible from without in the case of an overhung arrangement, will not be suitably located at the moment when the reversal is effected, which then in turn will occasion trouble.

The transmission of the motion, executed by the piston, toward the exterior and on to the control member of the accun'uilator was hitherto found diliicult to realize for the reason that it rendered it necessary to give the accumulator structure a height which, in the most favourable circumstances, had to amount to about twice the length of the path traversed by the piston.

hlly present invention is intended to obviate these drawbacks by establishing a novel form of connection between the separating piston and the control gear of the accumulater.

In the drawings annexed to this specification and forming a part thereof an accumuliquid container of the pump,

lator embodying my invention is shown by way of example.

In the drawings- Fig. 1 is a vertical section of an accumulator showing the control gear, and

Fig. 2 is a cross section thereof.

Referring to the drawing, the control rod, serving to transfer the motion of the separating piston moving narrowly within the accumulator, and which rod passes closely through the bottom of the accumulator casing, comprises a rigid portion 1 and a flexible portion 3 which may be a chain or the like. The length of the said chain is such that it will be stretched taut as soon as the piston attains its uppermost position, and that on the other hand, it will be enabled to accommodate itself within a sunken portion 23 arranged in the bottom of the accumulator when the piston attains its lowermost position.

The control rod 1 for its part acts on the by-pass valve 11 of the pressure pump, said valve being so constructed that it closes when the chain 3 becomes slack and thereby prevents the pressure liquid from passing directly from the delivery chamber into the but as soon as the separating piston by means of the chain 3 and the rod 1 comes to raise the valve, the pressure liquid is no longer fed into the accumulator but, and this without the exercise of any pressure, is forced back again into the liquid container of the pump by communication being now established between pipes 16 and 17.

This latter pipe connects the valve with the pump, and pipe 16 leads to the liquid container.

A. similar state will have been created on the acclnnulator being completely charged.

As soon as pressure liquid. is discharged from the accumulator, the separating piston drops, the tension oi chain 3 slackens, and valve 11 is again enabled to close itself. There is hereby secured for the discharge of the accumulator a comparatively large piston stroke, while as the pressure increases and when the accumulator is completely charged any possibility of the separating piston travelling beyond its upper limit and thus giving rise to an excess pressure by rel'ipening the bypass valve 11, is automatically prevented.

It is olwious that in the place of a chain I claim: In a device of the kind described in combination a cylinder closed at both ends, a

piston freely movable Within said cylinder a valve near one end of said cylinder, a rod operatively connected With said valve proectlng into sald cylinder and flexible tension means substantially equalling in lengh the stroke of said piston connecting said piston Wltll said rod.

In testimony whereof I aiiix my slgnature.

FRITZ KEMPTER. 

